About the program:

From July 1 to July 27, Hilde Binford and colleagues will present “Johann Sebastian Bach: Currents and Cross-Currents in the Baroque Era and in Our Time,” a National Endowment for the Humanities project whose purpose is to provide an understanding of the intellectual and musical worlds of J. S. Bach. School teachers from a wide variety of disciplines will travel with Dr. Binford, Louise Forsyth, and other experts to Eisenach, Leipzig, and Potsdam, Germany, for an intensive experience of lectures, performances, discussions and field trips. Follow along as the group explores the life and works one of the great geniuses of Western music.

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·  July 2012

A Shift From Wollny to Marissen.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

For the past two days the Bach participants have shared in a wealth of experiences, both musical and educational. West Side Story took the Leipzig opera house by storm, the Bach competition finals had us in wild applause, and Michael Marissen had his first day as our new lecturer. Although we were sad to see professor Wollny go, the past Friday has given us a new perspective on Bach and his cantatas.


Since our first day in Leipzig, it has become clear that we have been extremely lucky in our timing and hotel location in this city. It’s been overcast low-70s weather for the past week, but no one is complaining after writing home to our families. Everyone is thankful for the rain especially considering the extremely hot summer at home.


We’ve also had the fortune of staying (completely by accident) in the same place as the cast, crew, and musicians for the traveling production of West Side Story. The musical has inhabited the Leipzig opera house for the past week, and we’ve taken the opportunity to hang out with the cast in the city. Many of us even found ourselves in the audience, cheering on our newfound friends.


However, the opera house isn’t the only venue for culture in Leipzig. The Bach competition has been raging on every night of the past week, and Friday night was no exception. The finals for organ, voice, and cello were all in different churches, and the institute members followed their favorites into the last concerts. The cello attendees fervently followed their champion, while the vocal and organ competition goers debated after each performance.


As weeks two and three are based in Leipzig, a large group of us are not traveling this weekend, save for some day trips on Saturday and Sunday. Dr. Binford, Louise, and I will be leading trips to cities of historical importance, Dresden and Weimar.

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